Day Five

Henry VI, Part 1

1.4

SYNOPSIS

Back to France. We begin with the master gunner of Orleans talking to his boy about a trap he's set. French "espials" or spies are aware of the English as they spy on the French from a certain tower through some grate.

Gunner: A piece of ordinance 'gainst it I have placed

But then the gunner gets sleepy as has the boy watch. Then we get Talbot and it turns out he was ransomed for “Lord Ponton de Santrailles” whom Bedford had captured. Talbot talks about “the treacherous Falstaff” whom he with his “bare fists” he “would execute.” Talbot had been held and paraded in public but he broke free and apparently they were afraid of his reputation, which was, to say the least, supernatural, and his ugliness which may have been due to his enprisonment

Talbot:

My grisly countenance made others fly;

none durst come near for fear of sudden deaht.

In iron walls they deemed me not secure;

so great fear of my name 'mongst them were spread

that they supposed I could rend bars of steel

When Talbot and Sailsbury and Gargreve attempt to spy and shoot upon the French, Salisbury and Gargreve themselves are hurt...due to the gunner's trap, probably the boy who entered a few moments before with a “linstock.”

A messenger arrives not longer after and tells Talbot of Dauphin and Joan la Pucelle, “a holy prophetess.” Talbot accepts their advancement as a challenge:

Talbot:

Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels

And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.

IMPRESSIONS

It is starting to get interesting in terms of war, things are happening. Good to see Talbot has escaped, and now Joan and Dauphin and their army is making themselves known. Another short scene, but full of development and creates impetus for Talbot—revenge for Salisbury and Gargreve.

...AND THEN SOME

In my edition of the play (Complete Works, Volume 1, edited by David Bevington), when Talbot makes fun of Joan (“Pucelle or pussel”), the footnote reads: pussel drab, slut. Reading the wiki page, there is a note about this: “In French, 'puzel' means slut, and 'pussel' is a variation of 'pucelle' (meaning virgin), but with an added negative connotation. These two words, 'puzel' and 'pussel', are both puns on Joan's name (Pucelle), thus showing Talbot's utter contempt for her.” The footnote then references a book and discusses the “multiple connotations of Joan's name, which may also include 'pizzle', an Elizabethan word for the penis."  This is an interesting complication of an already complicated character: Virgin/Whore/Penis.